Selective facsimile denial

ABSTRACT

A method includes determining, at a processor of a computing device, whether an incoming transmission to a first destination is authorized at an electronic device of a communication network. The method includes, in response to determining that the incoming transmission is not authorized, determining whether a particular type of content is communicated via the incoming transmission. The incoming transmission is routed to the first destination when the particular type of content is not communicated via the incoming transmission, and the incoming transmission is not routed to the first destination when the particular type of content is communicated via the incoming transmission.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority fromU.S. Patent Application No. 13/774,085, filed on February 22, 2013,which is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 12/636,115, filedDecember 11, 2009 (now U.S. Patent No. 8,406,393), which is acontinuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 11/274,364, filed November15, 2005 (now U.S. Patent No. 7,653,184), which is a continuation ofU.S. Patent Application No. 10/967,100, filed October 15, 2004 (now U.S.Patent No. 7,006,612). Each of the above-referenced applications isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to systems for handling incomingfacsimile transmissions.

BACKGROUND

Junk faxes and other unwanted advertisements are often transmitted tobusiness facsimile machines. This results in wasted paper and toner andfrustration for the business owner and its employees.

Many residential owners of facsimile machines use their telephone linefor facsimile purposes only on an occasional, outgoing basis. Thesefacsimile machine owners do not wish to have their phone ring duringinconvenient hours due to unwanted, incoming faxes, but still wish toreceive incoming voice calls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is pointed out with particularity in the appendedclaims. However, other features are described in the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method of blocking unwantedfaxes in a telephone network;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system for blockingunwanted faxes in the telephone network; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method of blockingunwanted faxes in a telephone network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a particular embodiment, a system includes a switch and a controlmodule coupled to the switch. The control module is configured todetermine whether an incoming telephone call to a telephone line is afacsimile call or a voice call. The control module is also configured todetermine, based on a telephone number associated with the incomingtelephone call, whether facsimile calls are authorized to be routed tothe telephone line. When facsimile calls are authorized, the controlmodule is further configured to instruct the switch to route theincoming telephone call to the telephone line. When facsimile calls arenot authorized and the incoming call is a voice call, the control moduleis configured to instruct the switch to route the incoming telephonecall to the telephone line. The control module is also configured toinstruct the switch to deny routing of the incoming telephone call tothe telephone line when facsimile calls are not authorized and theincoming call is a facsimile call.

In another particular embodiment, a method also includes detecting anincoming call at switch of a telephone network. The method includesdetermining whether facsimile calls are authorized to be routed to adestination. The method further includes routing the incoming call tothe destination when facsimile calls are authorized. The method includesdetermining whether the incoming call includes a facsimile tone whenfacsimile calls are not authorized. The method also includes routing theincoming call to the destination when the incoming call does not includethe facsimile tone. The method further includes denying routing of theincoming call to the destination and routing the incoming call to asecond destination when the incoming call includes the facsimile tone.

In another particular embodiment, a computer-readable storage mediumincludes instructions, that when executed by a computer, cause thecomputer to detect an incoming call and determine whether facsimilecalls are authorized to be routed to a destination. The instructionsalso cause the computer to route the incoming call to the destinationwhen facsimile calls are authorized. When facsimile calls are notauthorized, the instructions further cause the computer to selectivelyroute the incoming call to the destination based on whether the incomingcall includes a facsimile tone.

Embodiments of the present disclosure block or re-route an unwanted,incoming facsimile transmission call by sensing for a presence of a faxtransmission tone within an element of a public telephone network beforethe telephone network completes the call to a called party. Asubscriber-updateable list, table or other data structure that containsauthorized calling party identifiers is stored and accessed within thetelephone network. The authorized calling party identifiers indicatetelephone numbers from which calls are authorized to be completed to thesubscriber's location for purposes of fax transmission. The telephonenetwork uses the list to determine whether or not to complete anincoming call as dialed, and whether or not to further analyze the callfor the presence of a fax transmission tone, such as a CNG tone. If thetelephone network detects the fax tone, the telephone network eitherblocks or re-routes the incoming call. The telephone network can use anAdvanced Intelligent Network (AIN) architecture or alternativearchitecture to control the handling of calls once the presence orabsence of the fax tone is determined.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference toFIG. 1, which is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method of blockingunwanted faxes in a telephone network 8, and FIG. 2, which is a blockdiagram of an embodiment of a system for blocking unwanted faxes in thetelephone network 8. The telephone network 8 may be part of a publicswitched telephone network, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)telephone network, or a non-traditional phone network.

As indicated by block 10, the method comprises storing, as data 12 in adatabase 14 of a service control point (SCP) 16, one or more callingparty identifiers from which fax transmission calls are authorized to becompleted to a telephone line 22 at a subscriber's location 20.Optionally, the database 14 also stores data 23 indicating one or moreother calling party identifiers from which fax transmission calls areexplicitly unauthorized to be completed to the telephone line 22 at thesubscriber's location 20.

The calling party identifiers may comprise ten-digit calling numbersand/or portions of ten-digit calling numbers. An example of a portion ofa ten-digit calling number is a six-digit NPA-NXX number, where NPA is athree-digit area code and NXX are three digits identifying a specifictelephone central office in the area code. When included in theauthorized data 12, the NPA-NXX data authorizes completion of faxtransmission calls from any telephone number having the NPA-NXX. Use ofNPA-NXX combinations in the data 12 is useful where the subscriber has alarge number of potential callers within the same NPA-NXX. For example,the subscriber may want to receive faxes from a firm whose headquartersis at a single location and has a large number of potential callerswithin the same NPA-NXX. In this case, the subscriber would not need tostore all of the headquarters' ten-digit numbers in the data 12 of thedatabase 14.

For purposes of illustration and example, consider the data 12indicating that the subscriber has authorized reception of faxtransmission calls from a first party 24 whose ten-digit number is512-555-0121, a second party whose ten-digit number is 512-555-0145, andany party whose NPA-NXX is 847-555. Those having ordinary skill willrecognize that the data 12 generally can include any number ofauthorized calling party identifiers.

Optionally, as indicated by block 26, the method further comprisesstoring, as data 28 in the database 14 of the SCP 16, days and/or timesat which facsimile reception using the telephone line 22 is acceptableor unacceptable to the subscriber. The times may indicate times of day,and the days may indicate specific dates and/or specific days of theweek, on which facsimile reception is acceptable or unacceptable. Thedata 28 is used to provide an additional restriction mechanism forincoming faxes. For example, the subscriber may wish to block allincoming faxes received after business hours.

Subscriber data 30, which includes the data 12, 23 and 28, can beupdated by the subscriber using a Web interface 32 and/or an interactivevoice response (IVR) system 34. The subscriber can view a visual displayof the calling party identifiers from the data 12 or 23 using the Webinterface 32, or can hear an audible display of the calling partyidentifiers from the data 12 or 23 using the IVR system 34. Thesubscriber can add or remove calling party identifiers (whether they befull ten-digit numbers or NPA-NXX numbers) from the data 12 or 23 byissuing commands using the Web interface 32 and/or the IVR system 34.Further, the subscriber can add or remove days/times to the data 28, ormay choose to turn the fax blocking feature on or off by issuingcommands using the Web interface 32 and/or the IVR system 34. The IVRsystem 34 may be receptive to both voice commands and DTMF commands.

Optionally, a telephone network element may automatically add to thedata 23 a list of one or more unauthorized calling numbers whose callsto the telephone line 22 have been previously blocked by the subscriber.

As indicated by block 36, a telephone network switch such as a serviceswitching point (SSP) 40 detects an incoming call from a calling partythat is intended for the telephone line 22 of the subscriber. Based ondetecting the incoming call, the SSP 40 hits a termination attemptadvanced intelligent network (AIN) trigger, and sends a query message tothe SCP 16 based on the AIN trigger.

As indicated by block 42, the SCP 16 receives the query message with aten-digit triggered number of the telephone line 22 as the key.

As indicated by block 44, the SCP 16 accesses the subscriber data 30 ofthe database 14 based on the key. The data 12 of the subscriber data 30is accessed to determine if the subscriber has authorized reception ofincoming faxes from the calling number of the calling party. If the data12 indicates that the subscriber has authorized reception of incomingfaxes from the calling party, then optionally the SCP accesses the data28 of the database to determine if fax reception is acceptable at thecurrent time and/or day, as indicated by block 45.

If the calling party is authorized based on the data 12 and the time/dayis acceptable based on the data 28, then the SCP 16 sends a responsemessage to the SSP 40 to instruct the SSP 40 to complete the call to thetelephone line 22, as indicated by block 46. As indicated by block 47,the call is completed to the telephone line 22 as dialed. If the callincludes an incoming fax transmission, the subscriber can receive thefax transmission using a fax machine 48 coupled to the telephone line22. If the call is a voice call, the subscriber can answer the voicecall and vocally communicate with the calling party using a telephone 49coupled to the telephone line 22.

If the calling party is authorized based on the data 12 but the time/dayis unacceptable based on the data 28, or if the calling party isunauthorized based on the data 12 or 23, then an act of playing anannouncement to the caller is performed as indicated by block 50. Theannouncement may comprise an audible phrase such as “please hold whilewe attempt to complete your call” or a recorded ring. Use of therecorded ring makes the call screening process inconspicuous, or ideallyindiscernible, to human callers. Regardless of its audible content, theannouncement may be a four-second or other duration AIN switchannouncement.

As indicated by block 52, a telephone network element senses for apresence of a fax transmission tone from the calling party over theduration of the announcement and before the call has been routed to thetelephone line 22. The telephone network element may comprise aplain-old telephone system (POTS) network element or a Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) network element, for example.

Sending facsimile machines generate an on-off cadence of faxtransmission tones until a receiving facsimile machine generates aresponse thereto. Thus, the act indicated by block 52 is used by thetelephone network to determine whether or not the calling party issending a fax in the call.

In one embodiment, the fax transmission tone comprises a CNG tone andthe response comprises a CED (CallEd station iDentification) tone. Anideal CNG tone comprises a 1100-Hz signal for 0.5 seconds followed by nosignal for 3 seconds. According to ITU T.30, an acceptable CNG tone iswithin a frequency tolerance of ±38 Hz and a timing tolerance of ±15% ofthe aforementioned ideal CNG tone.

The telephone network comprises a CNG detector 54 to detect if anacceptable CNG tone has been generated by the calling party during theannouncement. The CNG detector 54 waits to collect one digit during theannouncement. If a digit has not been collected by the end of theannouncement (e.g. by the end of about four seconds) or if a collecteddigit does not equal 1100 Hz±38 Hz, it is assumed that the call isabsent an acceptable CNG tone. If the collected digit is within 1100Hz±38 Hz, it is assumed that the call has an acceptable CNG tone.

If a fax transmission tone from the calling party is present in the call(e.g. the CNG detector 54 detects an acceptable CNG tone), then the callis considered to be a fax call either from an unauthorized calling partybased on the data 12 or 23, or at an unacceptable day/time based on thedata 28. To block these fax calls from being completed to the telephoneline 22, flow of the method is directed to block 56 which indicates anact of playing a denial announcement to the calling party, and block 60which indicates an act of terminating the call. As an alternative toblocking and terminating these unwanted fax calls, an act of re-routingthese fax calls to a different fax machine location having a differenttelephone line may be performed. Either way, the SSP 40 is instructed bythe SCP 16 to deny completion of the call to the telephone line 22.Optionally, as indicated by block 61, the calling party identifier (e.g.the telephone number) of the calling party is added to a list ofunauthorized calling party identifiers in the data 23. As a result, thedatabase 14 includes a calling party identifier of the calling party toindicate that subsequent facsimile transmission calls from the callingparty are unauthorized to be completed to the telephone line 22 of thesubscriber.

If the call is absent a fax transmission tone from the calling party(e.g. the CNG detector 54 does not detect an acceptable CNG tone), thenthe call is considered not to be a fax call but rather a voice call.Since non-fax calls are allowed to be completed, flow of the method isdirected to block 46 which comprises the SCP 16 sending a responsemessage to the SSP 40 to instruct the SSP 40 to complete the call to thetelephone line 22. This allows a son/daughter to call his/her parents inthe middle of the night even when the telephone network is screening faxcalls intended for the parents' telephone line, for example.

The above acts can be repeated for additional incoming calls intendedfor the telephone line 22.

For purposes of illustration and example, consider how theherein-described method and system process the following threehypothetical calls.

Call 1

The caller 24, whose telephone number is 512-555-0121, places a call tothe telephone line 22. Since the telephone number of the caller 24 is anauthorized number in a table in the data 12, and the call has beenplaced during acceptable hours as indicated by the data 28, thetelephone network completes the call as dialed. The subscriber mayanswer the call using either the fax machine 48 or the telephone 49.

Call 2

A caller 62, whose telephone number is 512-555-0120, places a call tothe telephone line 22. Since the telephone number of the caller 62 isnot in a table of authorized numbers in the data 12, the caller 62 hearsan audible announcement such as “please hold while we attempt tocomplete your call”. The call is analyzed, within the telephone network,for a CNG tone. If a CNG tone is present, the call is denied and anaudible termination announcement is played to the caller 62. If a CNGtone is not present, the telephone network completes the call as dialed.

Call 3

A caller 64, whose telephone number is 847-555-0130, places a call tothe telephone line 22. The NPA-NXX combination of 847-555 of the caller64 is in a table of authorized numbers in the data 12, however the callis placed after normal business hours as indicated by the data 28. Thecaller 64 hears an audible announcement such as “please hold while weattempt to complete your call”. The call is analyzed, within thetelephone network, for a CNG tone. If a CNG tone is present, the call isdenied and an audible termination announcement is played to the caller64 because fax calls are not accepted after normal business hours. If aCNG tone is not present, the telephone network completes the call asdialed.

The herein-disclosed method and system can be used to block and/orre-route incoming facsimile transmissions for multiple subscribers. Thedatabase 14 would include respective subscriber data for eachsubscriber, such as the subscriber data 30 for the example subscriberdescribed herein. Each subscriber would be able to access and modifyhis/her subscriber data using the Web interface 32 and/or the IVR 34.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method of blockingunwanted faxes in a telephone network. This embodiment includes the sameacts described with reference to FIG. 1, but with an alternative flowtopology. Each act indicated by a primed reference numeral in FIG. 3corresponds to a respective act having the same, but non-primedreference numeral in FIG. 1.

The alternative flow topology can be summarized as follows. If thecalling party is authorized based on the data 12 or the time/day isacceptable based on the data 28, then the SCP 16 sends a responsemessage to the SSP 40 to instruct the SSP 40 to complete the call to thetelephone line 22, as indicated by block 46′. If the calling party isnot authorized based on the data 12 or 23 and the time/day isunacceptable based on the data 28, then acts of playing an announcementto the caller and sensing for the presence of a CNG tone are performedas indicated by blocks 50′ and 52′.

The acts performed by each of the herein-disclosed components can bedirected by respective computer program code embodied in acomputer-readable form on a computer-readable medium. Each of theherein-disclosed components may comprise a respective computer processorresponsive to the computer program code to perform the acts.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosedembodiments may be modified in numerous ways and may assume manyembodiments other than the particular forms specifically set out anddescribed herein.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments which fall within thescope of the present disclosure. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed bylaw, the scope of the present disclosure is to be determined by thebroadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining, at a processorof a computing device, whether an incoming transmission to a firstdestination is authorized at an electronic device; and in response todetermining that the incoming transmission is not authorized:determining whether a particular type of content is communicated via theincoming transmission; routing the incoming transmission to the firstdestination when the particular type of content is not communicated viathe incoming transmission; and denying routing of the incomingtransmission to the first destination when the particular type ofcontent is communicated via the incoming transmission.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising, in response to determining that theincoming transmission is authorized, routing the incoming transmissionto the first destination.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingrouting the incoming transmission to a second destination when theparticular type of content is communicated via the incomingtransmission.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether theincoming transmission to the first destination is authorized is based onan identifier of a source of the incoming transmission.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, further comprising determining whether a particular telephonenumber is included in a list of authorized identifiers.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein determining whether the incoming transmission to thefirst destination is authorized is based on a date of the incomingtransmission, a time of the incoming transmission, or a combinationthereof
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining whetherthe time of the incoming transmission is within an authorized timerange.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding an identifierof a source of the incoming transmission to a list of unauthorizedidentifiers after determining that the particular type of content iscommunicated via the incoming transmission.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising providing a message to a source of the incomingtransmission after denying routing of the incoming transmission to thefirst destination.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein determiningwhether the particular type of content is communicated via the incomingtransmission comprises determining whether content of the incomingtransmission includes a particular type of audio content.
 11. The methodof claim 10, wherein the particular type of audio content comprises anidentifying tone.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifyingtone is within an auditory frequency range.
 13. A system comprising: aprocessor; and a memory including instructions that, when executed bythe processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:determining whether an incoming transmission to a destination isauthorized; in response to a determination that the incomingtransmission is not authorized: determining whether a particular type ofcontent is communicated via the incoming transmission; instructing anelectronic device coupled to the processor to route the incomingtransmission to the destination when the particular type of content isnot communicated via the incoming transmission; and instructing theelectronic device to deny routing of the incoming transmission to thedestination when the particular type of content is communicated via theincoming transmission.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory isconfigured to store restriction information including a first list ofauthorized source identifiers, a second list of unauthorized sourceidentifiers, an authorized time range, an authorized date range, or acombination thereof.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the restrictioninformation is received via a web interface.
 16. The system of claim 14,wherein the restriction information is received via an interactive voiceresponse interface.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor isan element of an internet protocol network.
 18. A computer readablestorage device including instructions that, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations including:determining whether an incoming transmission to a destination isauthorized at an electronic device of a communication network; and inresponse to determining that the incoming transmission is notauthorized: determining whether a particular type of content iscommunicated via the incoming transmission; routing the incomingtransmission to the destination when the particular type of content isnot communicated via the incoming transmission; and denying routing ofthe incoming transmission to the destination when the particular type ofcontent is communicated via the incoming transmission.
 19. The computerreadable storage device of claim 18, wherein determining whether theincoming transmission to the destination is authorized is based on aidentifier of a source of the incoming transmission, a date of theincoming transmission, a time of the incoming transmission, or acombination thereof
 20. The computer readable storage device of claim18, wherein the operations further include providing a message to asource of the incoming transmission while determining whether theparticular type of content is communicated via the incomingtransmission.